It's Time to Celebrate

The morning of Christmas Eve has arrived and the boys were up early again! I had to make the jello salad and the cherry cheesecake early enough to chill for the dinner this afternoon while they were eating breakfast, so I started that right after I showered and dressed this morning.

We spent the afternoon at mom's for a dinner and the little kids did a gift exchange. We had 19 there for dinner, including all 10 of Mom's grandkids. Mom topped off the day by giving herself a gash on her finger as she was getting the meat off of the turkey after dinner. Joe had just sharpened the knife when he did the carving before dinner.

We made our gift deliveries before and after going to Mom's and we didn't get home until well after dark. The boys didn't get to their cookie or countdown surprise until after nine p.m. The surprise was Jan Brett's The Night Before Christmas, of course. This version has many wonderful surprises in the pictures on the sides of each page.

Twenty-two

Rick celebrated his birthday Monday, but we went out to dinner on Sunday as Joe had the day off since he is doing training this week and is on Monday-Friday first shift. The boys enjoyed mussels, salmon, shrimp and scallops along with the traditional Eastern fare.

Clearing off Space

My dining room table is the hub of my family home. It is where we come together daily to enjoy a meal or two. Whoever is here can be expected to our family sit down meal. When it is time for the meal, sometimes everyone is there rather quickly, eager, and hungry. Sometimes we wait for a member to finish up an activity or get into the house and the beginning of the meal is delayed. The television is off (or at least paused). Conversation stops as someone leads a prayer. We talk about the food, we talk about anything, we talk about nothing, but most meals can bring us closer as we come from our respective places of our modestly large home.

Then comes a project, one of mine usually, and the sanctity of the dining room table is lost. It is covered with something that needs attention. Something is there that no one but the person working on the project can deal with. Meals are shifted to the kitchen. Much more cramped, but we are still together. It happened just this week. My dining room table had been covered since Sunday afternoon with empty boxes and craft supplies. There were also two boxes that need to go out of the house altogether. Why was all of that still sitting there today...interrupting the family meals? I did a fifteen minute rescue this morning before work and it is mostly cleared. Just 15 minutes; and why didn't I deal with that Sunday? I needed to reclaim the space for my family. Fifteen minutes and it was nearly all cleared (except the boxes that needed to be loaded in my van). Why did I let that little job junk up the family dining tradition for so many days? Come six o'clock the dining room table will be the center of a meal again.